VIU basketball program brings in new head coaches for 2026-27

Tony Bryce has been replaced by former assistant Luke Holmes on the women’s side, and Eric D’Andrea is taking over for men’s coach Matt Kuzminski.

Both outgoing coaches had built exceptional programs and ended their VIU careers with CCAA national medals.

Bryce and the women took home national gold back in the spring, while Kuzminski and the men earned a silver at the national tournament, which was hosted by VIU.

The new PACWEST season will be a time of transition and Holmes said everyone with the women’s program is still adjusting.

“There’s lots of great elements of our identity that we want to keep. I think we’re doing a good job of keeping those as a group. The challenge has been new people and new roles starting from me to a new crop of rookies. We’re trying to have lots of conversations so we can have the same success going forward.”

Holmes notes the roster for this year has differing levels of experience.

“We’ve got a mix of second-year players, a couple rookies, and a lot of the fourth and fifth-year players wanted to come back and pursue basketball and keep pushing to the level that we push them to. We’ve always been process-oriented. We work on the day-to-day and week-to-week stuff rather than what we want to accomplish at the end.”

Something the returning men’s players and D’Andrea have in common is playing for coach Kuzminski.

The new men’s coach spent four years in the program as a player, wrapping up his career in 2017.

Part of the early season will be about D’Andrea building relationships and trust with the players.

“It’s a bit of a different voice leading the group, but I think once the relationships are built, we’re able to hold the standards of VIU for all of us, coaching staff included. Accountability for the things that we want to do well at a high level.’

The men have eight returnees from last year, and D’Andrea likes the balance of first and second-year athletes and fourth and fifth-year players.

“We have a bunch of new players who get to learn from guys who have been here for many years, and those guys get to lead now. Those vets can express to them what it is to play here, the standards, and what it means to be a part of the program, because it’s a really special place to play.”

Both VIU coaches would rather not see an 11-day break between games to start the season but it has afforded the program extra practice time in the lead-up to the VIU versus Camosun island rivalry games on Nov. 5.

Subscribe to our daily news wrap. Local news delivered to your email inbox every evening. Stay up-to-date on everything Nanaimo and Oceanside.

info@nanaimonewsnow.com

Follow us on: Twitter (X) | Bluesky | Facebook

by Dan Marshall

VIU basketball program brings in new head coaches for 2026-27

More Local News